Sunday, May 17, 2009

Yet another minimalist week

Absolutely NOTHING to report this week on the going to med school front. I didn't complete a single lecture in General Chemistry and only did 2 trainings in Pandemic Influenza. Like the last week, I'm dealing with some tough medical issues and will need to decide soon what my next step is going to be to find a remedy.

In job news, it looks like I'm going to have to make a decision between an 80 mile one way commute to further my training in biological weapons defense and working as an uncertified Path Assistant with only a 45 minuite 10 mile commute. Honestly, I think I'm getting to the point where if I can't do the "real thing" in Pathology as a Pathologist, I'm not interested. The "social dynamics" of working in Allied Health in this capacity just don't seem to be worth it. In other words, I'd rather not work around women I out educate. Now I'm sure for some of my readers that's going to sound REAL arrogant, but for a good number of my minority readers, especially minority women, you'll know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. The fact is that there haven't been many times in my life where I felt openly discriminated against because I'm Black but gender discrimination has been far more of an issue. The fact is that being Black and out educating the people I work around has NEVER, EVER worked for me particularly in female dominated settings, which I've been fortunate to not have much professional with. For example, to this day, I still hear from a contact at my old job how much the "hater bitches" can't seem to keep my name from their mouths. But that's OK, I've got a a little legal something, something in the works to deal with that situation (I'm sure you guys didn't think I was gonna just let the shit they did to me just slide, did you?). At any rate, I don't think I'm going to make the same mistake I made last December when I could have been happily esconsced at an NIH gig instead taking the job working for a bunch of witches from hell. Even with the 1.5 hours commute versus a job with only a 45 minute commute, I'm going to choose peace of mind and regular oil changes for the next year or so because peace has NO pricetag.

This week I'll have to do doubletime to get caught up med school wise, but luckily my AMCAS is essentially done save for the rediting of the personal statement. I'm meeting with my main mentor, a Black woman with an MD/PhD who works for the feds on Tuesday to have her review it and to set up a new plan for getting accepted to med school. Despite the set back with the 5 year program, I feel good about my decision to limit myself geographically initially since I have the added pressure of helping my daugher through a difficult personal experience too that at this time I prefer not to elaborate on. So that old saying "if it ain't one thing, it's another" had become my theme song of late but hey, what can you do other than roll with the punches. Bottom line is for me to stay focused on the blessing I do have because things can always be worse.

There was one really great thing that happened this week and that was I had my formal training to be a speaker for a major national breast cancer organization. A few of the trainees were breast cancer survivors and almost all had been care givers for someone with breast cancer. Suprisingly, about 40% of the women there were women of color, so that was really great to see giving the mortality rate minority women have from breast cancer. As always, I get teary eyed when people are telling their stories but I think it's a very important cause and I can't wait until I get my first assignment!

OK, I think that's about it for today, hopefully I'll have something positive to update with this coming week!:)